# 1861 in music
## Events

* February 18 – To celebrate the opening of the parliament of the new Italian nation at Turin, Giuseppe Verdi's opera La Favorita is performed in the Teatro Regio. Verdi himself is a deputy in the new parliament.
* March 13 – Tannhäuser scandal in Paris.
* November – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is introduced by his teacher Feodor A. Kanille to Mily Balakirev. This completes the Russian Five. He begins his Symphony in E flat under Balakirev's guidance.
* Tchaikovsky starts to attend RMS classes in music theory taught by Nikolai Zaremba at the Mikhailovsky Palace

## Published popular music

* "Go Down, Moses", traditional African American spiritual, heard as a rallying anthem for the Contrabands at Fort Monroe; first spiritual known to be recorded in sheet music.
* "Abide With Me", w. Rev Henry Francis Lyte (1847), m. William Henry Monk ("Eventide," 1861)
* "Alice, Where Art Thou?", w. Wellington Guernsey m. Joseph Ascher
* "Aura Lea", w. W. W. Fosdick m. George R. Poulton
* "The Bonnie Blue Flag", w. Mrs Annie Chambers Ketchum m. Harry Macarthy
* "Eternal Father, Strong to Save", w. William Whiting m. Rev. John Bacchus Dykes
* "Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God Almighty", w. Reginald Heber (1826), m. John Bacchus Dykes ("Nicaea," 1861)
* "I'm Going Home to Dixie", w. Dan Emmett arr. C. S. Grafully
* "John Brown's Body", w. anon m. William Steffe
* "Maryland, My Maryland", w. James Ryder Randall m. Walter de Mapers, m. "Mini est Propositum" (12th century)
* "The Privateer", w.m. anon ("Quien Sabé")
* "The Vacant Chair", w. Henry S. Washburn (1861), m. George Frederick Root (1862)

## Classical music

* Peter Benoit
** Fantaisie No.4, Op.20
** Piano Sonata, Op.34, premiered March 21 by Angèle Tailhardat
** Hoogmis, premiered July 21 in Brussels
* Hermann Berens – 50 Piano Pieces for First Beginners, Op.70
* Alexander Borodin – Piano Trio in D major
* Johannes Brahms
** Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann Op.23 (based on Schumann's “last musical thought,” sketched in February 1854)
** Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel Op.24
** Piano Quartet No.1, Op.25
** Piano Quartet No.2, Op.26
* Anton Bruckner
** Afferentur regi, WAB 1
** Am Grabe, WAB 2
** Ave Maria, WAB 6
** Du bist wie eine Blume, WAB 64, dated December 5
** Fugue in D minor, WAB 125, dated November 8
* Antonín Dvořák – String Quintet No. 1 in A minor, Op. 1
* Hermann Goetz – Piano Concerto in E-flat
* Edvard Grieg – 4 Songs, Op.2
* Arthur Sullivan – The Tempest, premiered April 6 in Leipzig.
* Thomas Dyke Acland Tellefsen
** Marche triomphale, Op.29
** Grande Valses, Op.30
** Piano Trio, Op.31
* Henri Vieuxtemps – Violin Concerto No. 5
* Robert Volkmann
** Ungarische Skizzen, Op.24
** String Quartet No.6, Op.43

## Opera

* Daniel François Esprit Auber – La Circassienne, premiered February 2 in Paris
* Ferenc Erkel – Bánk bán
* Stanislaw Moniuszko – Verbum Nobile
* Amilcare Ponchielli – La Savoiarda

## Musical theater

* Orpheus In The Underworld by Offenbach, New York production (first performed in Paris, 1858)

## Published Methods and Writings

* John Curwen – How to Observe Harmony
* John Hullah – The History of Modern Music
* Carl von Ledebur – Tonkünstler-Lexicon Berlin's
* Jean-Joseph Rodolphe – Solfège
* Eugène Sauzay – Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven
* Franz Xaver Schnyder von Wartensee – Aesthetische Betrachtungen über die Schöpfung

## Births

* February 1 – Emilio Pizzi, composer (died 1940)
* February 21 – Pierre de Bréville, composer (d. 1949)
* April 7 – Clara Novello Davies, singer, conductor and music teacher (d. 1943)
* April 26 – Ferdinand Buescher, instrument manufacturer (d. 1937)
* April 27 – Georgy Catoire, composer (died 1926)
* May 10 – Francisco Cimadevilla González, guitarist and composer (d. 1931)
* May 12 – Ivan Caryll, composer (died 1921)
* May 19 – Nellie Melba, operatic soprano (d. 1931)
* June 11 – Sigismund Zaremba, composer (d. 1915)
* June 15 – Ernestine Schumann-Heink, operatic contralto (d. 1936)
* June 17 – Sidney Jones, composer of musical comedies (d. 1946)
* June 27 – Fanny Davies, pianist (d. 1934)
* July 16 – Franz von Blon, composer (died 1945)
* August 11 – Anton Arensky, pianist and composer (d. 1906)
* August 19 – Sadie Martinot, actress and soprano singer (d. 1923)
* September 7 – Thomas Whitney Surette, composer (died 1941)
* November 3 – Thomas O'Brien Butler, composer (died 1915)
* November 19 – Theodor Mannborg, organ maker (died 1930)
* November 29 – Spyridon Samaras, Greek opera composer, who also set to music the Olympic Anthem (d. 1917)
* November 30 – Ludwig Thuille, composer (died 1907)
* December 5 – James Thornton, English-born US songwriter and vaudeville comedian (d. 1938)
* December 18 – Lionel Monckton, composer of musical comedies (d. 1924)
* date unknown
** Camille D'elmar, opera singer (d. 1902)
** Giuseppe Fiorini, musical instrument maker (d. 1934)
** Ferdinand Ellsworth Olds, instrument manufacturer (d. 1928)

## Deaths

* January 17 – Lola Montez, dancer (b. 1821)
* January 22 – Giovanni Velluti, castrato singer (b. 1780)
* February 12 – Hippolyte André Jean Baptiste Chélard, conductor and composer (b. 1789)
* February 20 – Eugène Scribe, librettist (b. 1791)
* March 14 – Louis Niedermeyer, composer (b. 1802)
* May 3 – Anthony Philip Heinrich, composer (b. 1781)
* August 9 – Vincent Novello, composer and music publisher (b. 1781)
* August 11 – Catherine Hayes, soprano (born c. 1818)
* October 24 – Elisabeth Frösslind, opera singer (b. 1793)
* December 14 – Heinrich Marschner, composer (b. 1795)
* December 16 – Karol Lipiński, violinist and composer (b. 1790)
* December 18 – Ernst Anschütz, organist, composer and poet (b. 1780)
* December 25 – Natale Abbadia, composer (b. 1792)